Massage therapists and law enforcement can breathe a sigh of relief. A bill that would have abolished the Board of Massage Therapists and all licensure requirements for massage therapists died in a Senate committee last week, truly a happy ending.
HB #1315 relaxes occupational license requirements for some
professions. The bill dissolves all licenses for professional art
therapists, auctioneers, interior designers, wigologists, and massage
therapists. History and text of bill.
Speaker of the House Phillip Gunn sponsored the original bill. That bill did not include massage therapy but terminated license requirements for funeral home operators. That little act of abolition drew no small amount of attention. The committee removed all language about funeral homes but inserted a new Section 10 in the committee substitute bill:
Sections 73-67-1, 73-67-3, 73-67-5, 73-67-7, 73-67-9, 73-67-11, 73-67-13, 73-67-15, 73-67-17, 73-67-19, 73-67-21, 73-67-23, 73-67-25, 73-67-27, 73-67-29, 73-67-31, 73-67-33, 73-67-35, 73-67-37 and 73-67-39, Mississippi Code of 1972, which create the Mississippi Professional Massage Therapy Act and the State Board of Massage Therapy, are repealed.
The bill passed the House. The bill outraged massage therapists as well as some law enforcement officials. They said it would encourage prostitution and sex trafficking. The bill died in the Senate Committee on Accountability, Efficiency, and Transportation on March 2.
Kingfish note: What is interesting is several conservative groups such as Empower Mississippi and the Mississippi Center for Public Policy praised the bill's passage in the House. Interesting because they listed the professions affected by the bill but conveniently left out massage therapists.
27 comments:
Stupid license for a profession that shouldn't be licensed. Why do you even care, caped crusader KF?
They introduce this bill or one like it each session so these “therapists” will come to Jackson and “lobby” them. Check the records, it also includes a bill virtually each session with new regulations for hair stylists, etc.
Prostitution and sex trafficking. It will make it much harder to stop. Not to mention you are getting into health care to some degree. Yeah, I know, someone can sue. That means you had to suffer a real injury first and the goal of licensure in the health care field is to prevent injuries from happening to some degree.
And its an interesting story as they tried to sneak it through.
" Massage therapists "
Roads & Bridges, Tax, Law Enforcement and gawd knows how many other serious issues that should be addressed, the legislature spends our money debating:
" Massage therapists "
I'm all for doing whatever is required to abolish sex trafficking,
but prostitution is a different argument.
It can't be legislated.
(Unless less the state follows the Nevada model . . . controlled brothels and such). Not much different than the marijuana debate.
But even that wouldn't completely eliminate the pimps and their "stff".
People will pay for whatever they want . . . legal or not.
wtf do interior designers need a license?
If you are savvy the you can still get tugged at the local AMP just like you can still buy a bag of Yahweh’s herbs despite the legislature.
More government!
YAY.
This has nothing to do with massage therapists, or interior designers, funeral homes, etc. This is a pi**ing contest between the Senate and the House; between Dilbert and Philip.
Gunn is mad because the Senate won't follow his commands on the tax swap bill he calls a tax cut. So, he's killing everything from the other side. Delbert is mad because Gunn dropped his tax swap bill without any consultation other than talking for years about a tax cut. Now, the House is shooting down everything from the Senate. So therefore, the Senate will shoot down the House's pet bills.
Amazing how quickly things change; last year they cozied up together, Philip and Delbert (along with Philip cozing up with the black caucus) to take over the COVID money from Tate. But now, they are back to the normal jealousies across the rotunda with the two sides thinking the other are the bad guys.
Ridiculous, they can't even agree on simple crap like doing away with the licensing of interior designers - something they established only a few years ago.
But that's what you get when egos and ambitions get in the way. Time to pull your act together fellows. Do a reasonable tax cut, quit cowtowing to everything Empower/AFP sends your way, and go home. Time to be able to let the women and children back out on the streets before the girlfriends get jealous of the other girlfriends.
I thought I was pretty savvy...but, what is a stff - As in pimps and their stff? Be delicate.
" This is a pissing contest between between
Dilbert and Philip. "
That's the best explanation of the 2021 Legislative
shenanigans I've heard.
My money is on Hosemann.
Gunn reminds me of the three year old toddler screaming and throwing
toys all over the room when he doesn't get his way.
" wtf do interior designers need a license? "
Ordering the wrong wall paper can get very ugly, (not to mention a slightly different shade of carpet color ).
Fish is right. Sure there are other pressing issues but the work can't stop there. Prostitution and the other elements that potentially arise from no regulation pose a danger to society. It's important.
KF, you've got the cream of the crop bunch of trolls in your blog everyday. I often wonder if you enjoy it or grimace at any point when you realize we're surrounded by Rankin / Madison "better than you idiots in Jackson" clientele.
Have some of these "get out while you can" opinionated buffoons do some research on what happens to attached counties of failing cities so that they don't get TOO comfortable with the idea of the Jackson going full "Detroit".
They'll be forced to move right when they they think they've reached an untouchable level of comfort. Poison spreads when it's poured out on a table.
I see what you did there....
"Licensure cuts down on prostitution and human trafficking" Bullshit. As if someone going in for a "rub and tug" asks for a license much less MANDATORY CONTINUING EDUCATION compliance certificates.
Doctors don’t need licenses. Neither do lawyers. Neither do architects or builders.
If the house you live in collapses because of a bad architect, the free market will take care of it!
If your neurosurgeon takes a chunk out of your brain, the free market will take care of it!
All hail the mighty free market! Bow down and worship the majestic free market! What are you, some kind of liberal?
@8:19
In Anarcho-Capitalist (An-Cap) schools of thought, a “pact” or contract ensures you receive quality service. It will include the recourse and compensation on both sides for failure to deliver. Just like the NAP or Non Aggression Pact prevents your neighbor from deploying his privately owned tactical nuclear weapons on your property. Go read some Murray Rothbard or visit the Mises Institute online library and educate yourself before you embarrass yourself again.
EmpowerMS and Mississippi Center for Public Policy are not conservative groups, no matter how much they say they are. They are Libertarian organizations, which means they lean left and that is a far cry from conservative. They also get Democrats to sponsor many of their bills like John Horne did with SB 2792 which would have allowed persons convicted of violent crimes to get occupational licenses. This is a tactic Joel Bomgar and other libertarians use because the rank and file republicans won’t support it. Wake up people. Democrats aren’t your problem in Mississippi because there aren’t enough of them to matter in the legislature. It’s these libertarian organizations which also includes AFP.
8:19 one of the definitions of a key-board moron these days is one who comments but doesn’t have the common sense to fact check their stupid comments. You posted on a social media page so that means you have a computer.
Like many other professionals, attorneys must have a license before they can practice law in any state. While license requirements differ slightly from state to state, all states make it illegal to engage in the practice of law without first obtaining a license.
All doctors must be licensed by the state in which they practice, which requires completing medical school and passing an exam. Doctors can choose to specialize in a particular aspect of medical practice by completing a residency or fellowship in that specialty and obtaining certification.
In the United States, it's illegal to call yourself an architect unless you have been licensed by a state—a process requiring a degree in architecture, years of apprenticeship, and a grueling multipart exam. Yet unlicensed “architects” doing the work of architects abound—they call themselves designers.
Mississippi. Whether you are a residential or commercial contractor, if your projects exceed $50,000 you are required by the state to hold a license. You also need to: Show proof of insurance like General Liability and Workers Compensation, if you have employees.
9:57 you don’t have the keenest eye for sarcasm do you
Libertarianism is a religion, which is ironic because many libertarians claim to be atheists. Their ideology is their savior. It can do magical and mystical things no one else can, this “invisible hand of the market place”. It really is delusional. I support capitalism but you lose me when you say the minimum wage should be zero or there should be no borders or environmental regulations etc etc etc.
9:57 - true enough. But the same concept you preach applies now to barbers, and interior designers, and many hundreds of other ?professional organizations" who's one and only purpose is to limit competition by "their" licensing rules and requirements.
If you get a bad haircut, it will grow back in a few weeks and at that point go to another barber. (And yes, I've heard all about the sanitiation requirements, etc. They would still exist, and be enforced by the Dept of Health. The 'barber board' just like the cosmotology board exists to keep the competition at bay by those that are already "licensed".)
I agree with the comment above about MCCP, Empower and AFP being Libertarian rather than the "conservative" that they claim to be. And their position on licensing seems to vary depending on what group they are talking about - want to eliminate licensing requirements, but at the same time crow about the new licensing they pushed for the eye folks and the nurse practicioners. And the criminals that they want to give occupational licenses on release because they want them released so as to not use 'their tax dollars' (as if nobody else but them pays taxes) to keep folks in jail.
Lets get rid of a lot of the boards and commissions that are unnecessary and serve no good except to stifle competition. And lets realize that when one goes to a CPA for tax advice, they aren't going to look at the state license framed on the wall but rather the advanced degree from xyz University of a Master of Taxation. Same with your lawyer - anybody with sense isn't looking at their MS Bar admission, meaning they passed the MS Bar exam, paid their fees and go to convention every year to 'earn' their required CLE's - but you want to see if the diploma on the wall is from Texas Southern University or from UM or from Virginia Law School. If the lawyer graduated from a reasonable law school then the fact they have a MS Bar "license" means their check didn't bounce when they paid their annual dues
@10:41 PM
Thats okay. We don’t want any low IQ statists like you in our High Trust Capitalist Utopia anyway.
Libertarian Frog says: Hippity Hoppity stay the hell off my property!
Libertarians aren’t all athiests. But most of us are suspicious of organized religion. The reason goes all the way back to the hunter-gathering days of humanity.
See, back then the shaman would sit around camp with the working women eating mushrooms and tripping out while contributing nothing to the society except news superstition. This tradition passed on to temple priests who would eat the sacrifices and collect the tithes and on and on up until today with preachers living off the produce of others. All for what? More worthless superstition!
Landscapers are also licensed.
Can I still make sausage at home without a license? Asking for a neighbor who raises possums.
Here are the two possible reasons to abolish the massage therapy board and license requirements:
1). Your elected officials are much dumber than first thought. You can get hurt by a massage therapist. They should be trained, regulated and held accountable.
2). It is nothing more than a "shakedown" by your elected officials.
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